What Did You Enjoy Reading In 2011?

So, now that 2011 has been wrapped up neatly and we’ve journeyed a few days into 2012 without any Mayan prognosticated disasters or the foreseeable extinction of the written word, I’d love to know what people read and enjoyed in 2011 (it wouldn’t necessarily have to be published in 2011).

This year, I went back and explored Elmore Leonard’s ‘Pronto‘, which featured the character Raylan Givens, who went on to be the basis for the popular FX show ‘Justified.’ I also enjoyed Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One‘, progressed deeper into the fantasy world Patrick Rothfuss created and cultivated, and admittedly was kind of on the ropes about Lev Grossman’s ‘The Magicians‘ and Jo Nesbo’s ‘The Snowman‘, despite both being well written tales.

Along with ‘Devil in the White City‘, ‘The Graveyard Book‘ and ‘The Book Thief‘, I finally got around to ‘A Storm of Swords‘ in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series and of course was not surprised to find it brutal, but really good. If you thought that George R.R. Martin didn’t mind offing characters in the first two books, this one will put that to shame. Good lord. This is one fantasy world I would not want to live in. It’s like Deadwood minus the cowboys and syphilis.

So, that’s a sample of what I checked out in 2011. There are still a lot of 2011 books that I’d love to get around to this year. Tina Fey’s ‘Bossypants‘, Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84‘ and Karen Russell’s ‘Swamplandia‘ are at the top of my goodreads list and I know there are some others that I am forgetting. Either way, what did people enjoy reading in 2011? What are you looking forward to in 2012? Thoughts?

4 comments to What Did You Enjoy Reading In 2011?

My favorite reads of 2011 were THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, A CURSE DARK AS GOLD, WINTER’S BONE, ONE DAY, and Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy.

I read THE GAME OF THRONES and really enjoyed it, but MAN was it a long one! I don’t know if I can commit to finishing such a massive series. This is why I never read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. (Great movie, though.)

I agree, Lori. I was such a fan of The Hunger Games trilogy too. So engrossing from the first chapter. I will have to check out your other recommendations too. A Curse Dark As Gold sounds especially interesting. Always willing to explore retelling of fairy tales.

Even though I am still reading Karen Russell’s ‘Swamplandia!’, I would highly recommend it already for the great prose that’s sprinkled in the passages of early chapters. It’s been really enjoyable to read so far.

Thanks for the thought with my book too. It will be exciting to finally see it in print.

Oooh, I have a shiny new copy of SWAMPLANDIA waiting in my TBR pile right now. I’ll read that next. Thanks!

A CURSE DARK AS GOLD is really beautiful. I met the author at a reading convention last year, and she was wonderful. She was sitting at the SCBWI table and her book was propped up. I saw it and started gushing over it, I had no idea who I was talking to. It could have been mortifying, but she was so gracious about it all. And then she signed a copy for me!

Wow, that’s crazy, Lori. Great to hear that she was really gracious about the meeting. It’s always cool to hear when an author is a genuinely nice person. Now I will pick up A Curse Dark As Gold for sure.

And certainly let me know what you think of Swamplandia! if you get around to reading it. I would be very interested to know what others think.